Toyota's WRC return to help develop driverless cars

A car that takes two people to keep it on the road is being used to advance the development of driverless car technology.

It seems ironic, but Toyota's global boss, Akio Toyoda, promised during his speech at the Paris motor show that the company's return to the World Rally Championship next year with its Yaris WRC is more than just an image builder.

"Besides racing there are other lessons we can learn, to make cars safer and more accessible," he said.

"This WRC Yaris will play a role in our autonomous testing as well. In fact, we won't just be racing but we will actively be collecting data on how the car handles during unique driving conditions in the races here in Europe and around the world.

"This very valuable data will be applied to the development of our automonous vehicles. We are serious about what we intend to accomplish."

Unlike many other brands, Toyoda would not be drawn on committing to a timeframe for the introduction of Toyota's autonomous vehicle technology, but said the company has been working on it for decades.

Typically conservative, Toyoda conceded that fully autonomous functionality (or what it calls chauffer mode) will be "100 percent accurate by testing a minimum of 14.2 billion kilometres, which would take decades in real-world driving.

"Therefore the only way to accomplish this goal is through the use the computer simulation which we have developed."

In the meantime, the Yaris WRC was revealed in public for the first time at the Paris show, introduced by Toyoda and team principal, four-time World Rally Champion Tommi Makinen, ahead of its race debut in the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally in January.